Scammers exploit Chrome bug to force users to pay fake customer care executives

Despite Google’s crackdown on malicious and intrusive ads, scammers are still exploiting bugs in Chrome and, in some cases, Mozilla Firefox to trick users. These scammers typically pose as official Microsoft technical support and mislead users by demanding that they pay for a fix .

The exploit was discovered in February and locks users into a web page that cries that their ISP is blocking them. This is actually done by downloading an executable file onto the user’s PC without the user’s permission . As soon as the file is downloaded, it takes advantage of a flaw in Google Chrome to install in the background without your permission.

As a result, the browser becomes unresponsive within seconds and a dialog appears prompting the user to call a (actually fake) phone number that claims to belong to Microsoft. When a panicked user calls the number, the scammer poses as Microsoft technical support and forces them to share their credit card details in exchange for resolving the issue . Executable files are usually downloaded by clicking on fake or misleading ads.

This issue was apparently fixed in Chrome 65, which was released in Chrome 65, but it seems to have reappeared in the latest version, namely Chrome 67. Antivirus provider Malwarebytes , which first discovered the bug in February, reported that Mozilla may be affected by the bug. good.

Meanwhile, Bleeping Computer has confirmed that the Vivaldi and Brave browsers also freeze with this exploit, while Opera remains frozen, but only for a short period of time. Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer have been found to be immune to malicious programs .

Google acknowledged the issue and said it would fix it, while Mozilla also said it was investigating the impact on browsers. However, as a user, you should try to avoid clickbait and too-good-to-be-true ads. As far as this flaw is concerned, you can force close the browser using Task Manager on Windows or Force Quit on Mac.